8 signs your child needs glasses​

Ensure your child's eye conditions aren't going unnoticed

​If your child is struggling at school, or having problems keeping focus with everyday activities like reading, it could be due to a vision-related issue or eye condition. Often a child's vision impairments will go undetected. Don't let this happen to your little one! We've provided a list of tell-tale signs that your child may be near-sighted, far-sighted or suffering some other eye condition, so you can get them diagnosed and treated early. We've also featured a couple of optometrist​s who can help diagnose you child and see if they need glasses or some other form of treatment.

How To Know If Your Child Needs Glasses

​Squinting

Squinting will reduce the size of the blurred image on your child’s retina, temporarily improving their vision. ​Your little one may squint often if they’re trying to compensate for poor vision.

Head Tilt

​If your child is always tilting their head, it’s a tale-tell sign that they may be suffering from an eye muscle imbalance. This imbalance can cause double vision, which is less intense when they tilt their head.

Sitting Too Close

Does your child sit too close to the TV? If so, then there’s a good chance they suffer some degree of near-sightedness. This eye condition means that they have clearer vision when focusing on something up close, but will struggle to see clearly from a distance.

Closing One Eye

​Covering one eye when reading or watching TV is common practice when a child has good vision in one eye, but is trying to shut off the vision of a weaker eye. If your child is covering one eye and this is left uncorrected, they could be at risk of developing a lazy eye, cross eyes or a number of other eye-related conditions.

Watery eyes

Apart from being annoying, ​watery eyes can interfere with good vision. If your little one has watery eyes, it could be due to a condition where their eyelids don’t completely close when they are asleep, causing excessive tearing during the day.

Eye Rubbing

If your child rubs their eyes constantly when they’re not tired, this may be a sign of eye fatigue. This symptom can be the result of a number of eye conditions and vision problems, so you should seek professional help from your local Townsville optometrist.

Constant Headaches

​If your child won’t stop getting headaches, it could be due to them overexerting to compensate for poor vision.

If your child is showing any of these signs, you should take them for a test at your local Townsville optometrist. We’ve featured a couple who will help diagnose any eye conditions and determine if they need glasses.